AIA medical adviser: Football will depend on virus trends
Can the Arizona Interscholastic Association pull it off and have a high school football season this fall amid the COVID-19 pandemic?
Dr. Javier Cardenas, a sports neurologist and director of the Barrow Concussion and Brain Injury Center, is part of the AIA’s medical advisory committee that has been offering safety guidance on how to progress in the sport.
This week, Cardenas, in a Zoom interview with weighed in on the topic, which has been on the top of the minds for parents, players, coaches and administrators.
“I think all schools, all programs, are really thinking not just about the immediate return on the activity but also they’re thinking about the future,” Cardenas said. “They’re saying, ‘If we’re safe now, then we have an opportunity in the future to participate in competition.
“But there isn’t testing, not like professional sports. We don’t have the resources that Division I athletics has. But I think many programs are doing the best they can within the circumstances in the environment that they can.”
“I honestly don’t know,” Cardenas said. “I don’t even know what’s going to happen within the community. My hope is that this infection will decrease in the community. The truth of the matters is that there will likely be another phase in the late fall or winter. We don’t know when that will be.
“There have been some bad habits that show up around holidays. It seems that we pay for that every 14 days after a holiday. So we don’t know what that will look like. So any prediction that we might have around high school athletics, I simply don’t know.
“I do know there are some very thoughtful people, some very good people who are trying to make some good decisions. Just like anywhere else, and with anything else with policies in sports, you’re going to have outliers. You’re going to have people who are extreme on one side or the other. But for the most part we are trying to get our youth engaged in physical activities and athletics. We’re trying to keep them healthy physically and emotionally, and do our best to serve them well. We know this pandemic has weighed heavily on all of us, but especially our youth.”
“It’s a huge concern. I personally have had patients who have committed suicide during this pandemic. The mental health burden is incredible. It’s not something to be taken lightly. It’s something that we’ve experienced outside of the pandemic and before the pandemic. But it’s only exacerbated a lot of what people are experiencing. And the resources that they have are limited even more so than they used to be. We all know, when it comes to mental health, there are significant limitations on what people have access to, even outside of circumstance like these.”
“The issue with a timeline is that it’s difficult, no matter what,” Cardenas said. “It’s really about the conditions. If the conditions are right for participation, meaning we had a decline in our infectious rates, that people are being safe, that they are masking up, that they are social distancing, I think there’s an opportunity when September rolls around, there can be competition. I think if those conditions are met, there’s hope.”
“It’s a huge concern,” Cardenas said. “I personally have had patients who have committed suicide during this pandemic. The mental health burden is incredible. It’s not something to be taken lightly. It’s something that we’ve experienced outside of the pandemic and before the pandemic. But it’s only exacerbated a lot of what people are experiencing. And the resources that they have are limited even more so than they used to be. We all know, when it comes to mental health, there are significant limitations on what people have access to, even outside of circumstance like these.”
“Club sports is incredibly big, and that’s great for the physical activity,” Cardenas said. “The wonderful thing about academically-based sports, of course you have to qualify for that, is that the other thing is the Arizona Interscholastic Association has been a national model for its policy. Whether it be concussions. Whether it be heart attacks. Heat-related illness. The opium program. There is an (opioids) educational tool online now that is required for all athletes. What clubs sports lack is a medical advisory committee. That concerns me, because they have to turn somewhere for their policy. Hopefully, they’re turning to medical professionals. The other thing, specifically for concussions, the AIA has a concussion policy that covers athletes who sustain a concussion while playing in an AIA sports, no matter what the sport.”